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My lawyer is dying to have a chat with you, and will be forwarding a citation shortly. Other than that, keep it up.

As a sidenote now i will be forever disapointed we will not be geting a game were you play as an Earthbound. Dungeon keeper without the humor and set in the modern day? Sign me up, nya.

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*raises eyebrow* What?? What I have done that could cause me to be "sued"? As far as I know, using someone's nickname isn't illegal, specially if it isn't for profit.

Also, I suppose you mean a game where you build labyrinths and set traps but based in nowadays no? As far as I can recall Evil Genius is a sort of "modern" Dungeon keeper, and the game's original title was Mother 2 (it was renamed for the US so that people didn't asked for the 1st game, for the old NES, and the title of the series is because according to the author he was inspired by by the John Lennon song "Mother").

I had forgotten how strange and awesome is the music in this game. Keep it up the way you're going , no need to change anything.

After all, I managed to write another update. So let's begin!
The last thing we saw the defeat of the second sanctuary’s guardian, after Black Cat’s rescue, and that in the battle Codex became homesick again; fortunately, it seems that fusing your soul/mind with a part of Earth’s power through a mystical leyline or something is the little ego boost he needed to focus on his mission.
In any case, here’s the theme for the Happy Happy village: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAMTjL7Zocw
And the Peaceful Rest Valley’s one:http://rpgmusic.org/earthbound/peaceful-rest-valley

Now, let’s return to the village:

Well, it looks better, without that sickly blue everywhere. What about the people?
Lulz, now, let’s check a strangely red house that we avoided before:

Note: In the original version, these type of comments were censored because they mentioned either God and/or the Devil (as in this case, he mentioned Devil instead of evil and God for good and such).
It looks like we don’t have anything more of interest here, so we’ll return to Twoson:

”I wonder if the bus will have to turn around and come back.”
Wisdom: That means we must find a way to continue, for the moment however let’s talk with two of the Runaway Five’s gang, the town’s famous band that plays on the Chaos Theater: ”How about introducin’ her to my bandmate? He’s right there.””Here’s a Backstage pass. You can get into our show with this!”

Another important item, we’ll check the theatre in a moment, for now let’s be a gentleman and accompany Black Cat to Polestar, to meet her family and such:“but I know that B. Cat’s miraculous power and your great courage will allow you to stand up to any challenge. B. Cat if you must take a trip, be sure to bring this along, it’s my own hand-made band-aid! Ooo! That rhymes! I know, I’ll call it a Hand-aid! Did you meet Dad? He’s sorry that he suspected Mr. Everdred of Burglin Park.”

And for rescuing the princess… I mean B. Cat, we got an important healing item, so we’ll save this for another moment, inventory is limited after all, now it’s turn of B. Cat’s paranoid father:

”like in B. Cat’s dream.” I still find strange why would your daughter say something so “private” as her dreams.
Overprotective father: (Ignoring Codex) It’s not every day a father lets his daughter embark on a journey to save the world!Dad, don’t worry about me. Codex and I will be able to take care of ourselves. In Threed, the next town, we’ll meet another friend. If the three of us can combine our power, no one can beat us. Now wipe your eyes, blow your nose, and smile before we take off. So you can see the future? How you were captured then? You surely predicted that would happen, in fact, you could just point me out where are the other Sanctuaries.Well, because that would be metagaming, and it’s unfair… I mean, that my power isn’t so accurate; I can just see some things…

In any case, we continue our travel:
Oh yeah, I forgot, Everdred. We’ll visit him now, before, I’ll comment more about Black Cat’s psychic powers, because unlike Codex she had time to practice her psychic sorcery:
Unlike most jprgs, the elemental spells aren’t just a re-skin of a basic one, here every spell works differently; PSI Fire is a fire-based attack that hits many enemies at once, Psi Freeze is a powerful one-target attack that can freeze the enemy and waste him some turns, and PSI Thunder is an attack that can strike several times and ignores barriers and shields, unfortunately, it may miss (specially if there are few targets). The powers also have different versions depending of their potency and effectiveness (and cost), these are Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Omega (and in some cases Sigma too), some spells have all versions but others only have two (normally the Alpha version for one-target and the Omega version for several targets, as it happens with Hypnosis).
The little tutorial is over, so we try to move where Everdred is, in the way however we find several enemies:

This one has “obscure” attacks like wobbling, reeling from backpain, and grumbling about today’s youth (randomly decreases Guts). ??? Next one:

Not very interesting, as she falls pretty quickly with basic attacks, but the most fearsome foe is a demonstration about Gygas’s twisted and sick humor, the Hippy!!http://rpgmusic.org/earthbound/franky-2
That bloody abomination isn’t particularly dangerous, except for one of his attacks:

… No comments here. Nevertheless, we reach the market, and before entering Ever’s house we buy a Fresh Egg, a food item that has an unique propriety: as time passes, it will eventually hatch, birthing a Chick, and after several seconds it’ll turn into a chicken. Both of these are unfortunately inedible but you can use the Chick to make Codex feel momentarily happy (and put back a bit his homesickness), and sell the Chicken for some extra money, that’s always good to have. And now, finally, Everdred:

” written all over your face. If you accepted, I was going to give you some money...”Hey!! That’s not true!! I’m interested!! Come on!! Listen to me! Oh fuck, why sometimes I have the sensation that people speaks as if I was mute or something? Or that the dialogues are… one-dimensional, to say?
Everdred: (Ignoring Codex’s comments) […] Actually, I can’t keep the money now anyway. Let me give this to you. It’s 10.000 dollars. Use the money any way you like. You cannot refuse my generosity. Just accept it. Now I plan on looking for the evil Mani Mani Statue that Lier X. Agerate unearthed in Onett. I’ll see you at another time, in another space.”Awesome, free bling!!! Now I have money for the rest of the game!!! Right??
Unfortunately, no, it counts as an important item, and thus you cannot use it for yourself, for not say about where does the money comes from.Oh man. In that case, let’s go to that ridiculous theatre…
At the theatre, after the obligatory photo from the Stalking Photographer;
We enter to the main room, and again we start randomly talking to see what inanities are said here: http://rpgmusic.org/earthbound/dead-end-chaos-theatre
Touché, but at least Mr T is here as well.”Wow, I’m impressed!”

”I’m sure security will stop me.”It sucks to be you then because I have one and…
Random girl: Hey! Really? You have a pass? I can’t believe it! Can you take me with you please, please please?? I could pose as your sister. But…
Random girl: Yes? This rocks. Let’s go. Ooo. My heart is pouding.*sighs*
It’s bad but again this is not a jrpg, you rarely will have a choice, for anything. About the Runaway Five: ”I got those debt blues, hm mm mm. If I had 10,000 dollars, I could pay off my debts and move on to the next town. ”

We found a possible income for the money it seems.

”Money, that’s what I want money, that’s what is hot money, that’s what I want money, it’s what we ain’t got ‘cept freedom, freedom, freedom is what we’ve really sought!”

Obviously, the Runaway Five (Tonzura Brothers in the Japanese version) are based on the Blue Brothers, there is also a reference on a The Beatles’s song called "Money (That's What I Want)", originally by Barrett Strong. After the concert is over, we go to the Manager, to free the Runaway Five from their debt.

Jewmanager: They’ll stay here until they pay me back. They might be there for 100 years, unless you decide to pay off their debt… Heh, heh, heh.And that’s what I’m doing!! Look here fatass *weaves around the wad*!!
Jewmanager: ‘Scuse me? What’s you got there? Let me take a reeeeal close look. (And yes, you must use the item just next to the manager, because everyone knows greed provokes partial blindness… ???). Yipes! You surprised me. Now I’m not sure what to do. I got the money of course, and now the Runaway Five are free to leave. I’ve got no complaints now that I’ve my money.
And suddenly the ‘Five storm in, expressing their gratitude:
And we’re able to go to Threed, originally you couldn’t pass because the ghosts were emo-powered and thus kicked you away, but now armed with loud and happy music (??) we arrive to the new town without any problem:”This town seems pretty gloomy, but I’m sure you can light up the place with your own little brand of sunshine… Hope to see you again sometime. Look for us to be singing in some theater in Fourside… "

Threed’s theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocl_cqkQRQU
This is a dark and gritty place, where night is eternal, and monsters roam around, monsters like living puppets:
And supernaturally irritating kids. I’m curious about what would the citizens say, considering their precarious situation:

”I’m watching a zombie movie. Can you come by later?!”
… A guy watching zombie film in a zombie-infested town. *facepalm*

”but I betrayed them too. I’m a con man, so I know the score. Belch gives life to the zombies but Belch works for Gyigas, who I heard might be female. Well, I’m not really sure, I’m a helpful con man, don’t you think?”
That’s real dedication.Why would the zombies need a conman’s services?
Don’t ask. ”is in the circus tent at the center of the town. We want to crush the zombies, except I think they’ll crush us. ”

Excellent, more rebels, we’ll get to that in a moment, before, once again we call Codex’s Mom, ignoring the fact we’re in a cursed town and stuff. ”So, I heard that you got a new girlfriend in your journey… Well, why don’t you tell me about her later… You see, I have the feeling she’s next to you or something. Well, if she-s not right there, say hello to her for me. I have to go now… I-m right in the middle of cleaning the toilet… Bye!”

And despite being less than one day we met Black Cat, Codex’s Mom used her “motherly skills” to learn about it despite the lack of information, and managed to be even more unpleasant the situation with her last line… Let’s check the other citizens:

”Belch! That's a gross, twisted name even for a monster!””"Master Belch will give us our lives back. Master Belch is the zombie leader. He must be really pukey.”
A foreshadowing on the zombies’ boss.
Interesting, but before let’s walk to the Zombie Relief Corps, and ask for a plan: ”Everyone, I repeat, the zombies are on the move!”
World’s worst resistance movement indeed. Seeing this passiveness, it looks like we’ll find no help there, instead, the Stalking Photographer shows up his face again:
And we’re attacked by ghosts and mutants:
The ghosts are dangerous because they can cause the Possesed state, where a small ghost will annoy you in ways such as preventing one of your party’s members to act, damage you, etc. And worse, it remains after the battle.
The path to continue is blocked however.

Then that’s all for today, I’m going to the Hotel and call it for a day… Hey? Who’s that chick?
Hmm, haven’t we heard of her before? Doesn’t matter, we follow her…
And in response Codex’s party is tactical geniused by zombies and ghosts.OH FUUUU… *is knocked down* “What could be the fate of Codex and his friend?”

Well, they’re alive, but locked in a room without any other exit, and Black Cat started praying:

What will happen now? Will Jeff receive Black Cat’s plea for help? Or Black Cat just got delusional for the despair and is speaking non-sense? We’ll see it in the next update!!

I really, really hope you did not really take my comment seriously in the slightest. Wink

And yes, i know about the title and those games. It was just another WoD reference, since it is, like, obligatory to make those every time this game is mentioned and stuff.

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Well, basically ANY WoD game would be cool to have... Both of the old and the new ones, the setting has infinite potential, unfortunately, it's unlikely to happen considering how are rpgs nowadays...

Ahh, I've replayed this game more than it's linear JRPGness probably deserves. The music and quirkiness of the dialogue are really something else though. I also find it funny that it's the only JRPG I'm aware of that has a per-member inventory system ala Infinity Engine.

I'll probably be too lazy to actually do this, but would anyone care for a Mother 3 LP? I played and beat it right when the fan translation came out, it was good and a recognizable successor to Earthbound, though it was a different kind of good(it had a touch of DARK & GRITTY, if you can imagine that).

Ahh, I've replayed this game more than it's linear JRPGness probably deserves. The music and quirkiness of the dialogue are really something else though. I also find it funny that it's the only JRPG I'm aware of that has a per-member inventory system ala Infinity Engine.

I'll probably be too lazy to actually do this, but would anyone care for a Mother 3 LP? I played and beat it right when the fan translation came out, it was good and a recognizable successor to Earthbound, though it was a different kind of good(it had a touch of DARK & GRITTY, if you can imagine that).

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Well, after finishing this one, I was planning to do a Mother 3 lp, more because the game really deserves to recognized and in Something awful forums the dicks have abandoned the lp, so I'll do it as well.

PS: Also, Mother 3/Earthbound 2 is partly mature too, in the good sense of the word.

”We are trying to contact you... If you hear me, please wake up and... head south! Only you, though far away, can save us, Jeff... Please hear my call and begin heading south... Jeff! You are a friend who we've never met... But you are our one and only hope!...”

And so we meet Jeff, the 3rd chosen boy, and the only one that cannot use psi. No offense here, but he’s also almost as frail as a little girl and all of his weapons are ranged (thus rarely being able to cause a SMASH attack, if any), but he’s a scientist genius, able to use unique and overpowered items. For now, let’s annoy Jeff’s neighbor to see how he reacts:
… *slowly steps away*
Unfortunately, the gay kid catches us trying to escape.

”I had a strange dream where a desperate girl told me to run away from here to save her and another friend, that they’re trapped in a cell in a town surrounded by zombies and that our destiny as the Chosen Ones is to save the world from an alien overlord of limitless power by assisting Codex in merging his power with Earth’s one, and that she’s my friend despite I never saw her until now. Do you understand?”

Gay friend: “...All right. There must be some reason that I don't understand. I won't stop you. But it's dangerous to leave without taking anything along. Hey, I think there's some stuff in the locker room that you should get. I'll help you get out of here...”

And Tony (the “friend”) joins us! Now that we have a bit more of freedom, let’s check Jeff’s stats and inventory:
AAARGH!!! HE STARTS AT LEVEL 1 TOO!!! Sigh… Well, at least, he levels up quickly (if you ask, the ruler and protractor are joke items, that do nothing but occupy your space; about the broken items, I’ll talk about it later), now we leave the room and as always interrogate the residents for info:”I don’t believe it! I think someone made a model and placed it in the lake.””It’s about the Cave Boys at Stonehenge. Many claim to have actually see them.””I’ll wash my face, brush my teeth, do my bussiness, and go to bed.”

NOTE: In the original version, he was more “graphic”, saying that he was to take a pee and sleep; aparently Nintendo’s overzealous censorship corps considered that a such as natural and mundane thing was somehow harmful to our poor children *rolls eyes*.

”that the center of Stonehenge has an entrance leading someplace. Some day, we should check it out.”

Well, that’s all here, some random info that might or might not be foreshadowing; entering the nearby room, we meet:

”I hand decorated each cookie to pass out at the party tomorrow.”

And now, for no other particular reason that to be a prick, we loot each one of the presents, stealing several Cookies.
*evil laugh* Biowhare: Dark Side points gained (if that was an actual Biowhore game, we would get EXTREME points or we would be able to fuck off Tony more literally).
Notice how Tony doesn’t bother, althought I wouldn’t trust that rape face of his…

The bottom floor, first room has: ”Are you looking for a late night snack? I'm having some trouble with my project. If only Jeff's father, Dr. Andonuts, were here. He'd be able to provide a great deal of help. I heard he's an astounding person. He was the first leader of our Ultra Science Club... I heard he's greater than Einstein or Heisenberg. Rumor has it he's also very strange. If you're heading to the locker room, take this key along. It's a little bent though. If you leave, call me, and I'll record your adventure. It's like saving the game. Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha. ”

”I thought that might be the case. So I just invented the... Machine that Opens Doors, especially when you have a slightly bad key. Sorry for the inconvenience. (Jeff got the Bad key machine.) If you are Dr. Andonut's son, you should be able to repair small tools and make them useful. Just try to keep a positive attitude. ”

… Okay, just let’s get out of this place before Jeff’s sanity starts to erode.

Outside, Tony quickly assumes a summission position , to help us to jump the door.”Well... I'll say goodbye for now. I don't know where you're going or why, but remember, we are best friends forever.”

And we’re out of the school, and more importantly, away from this “disturbingly affective friend” (seriously, I don’t see what did Biowhore invented with abusing of gayness, Earthbound did that like more than 13 years ago as you can see). The 1st thing we should do is check the conveniently nearby store:”'If you buy a pack of bubble gum, you can have the monkey for free. Otherwise, he will cost you a buck. So, do you want him? Thanks! The monkey's yours.””(The monkey got a piece of bubble gum from Jeff and blew a bubble!)(The Bubble Monkey joins you.)”

And now we just bought a monkey (???). Whatever, let’s hope he doesn’t have fleas. Outside, we find a random tent, which we visit immediately hoping there are more things to "expropiate". Unfortunately, we just find a guy that advice us that the animals had gone crazy for some reason and the other guy just give us a free stay to rest. Speaking of the enemies:

They’re mostly crazy goats. Btw, now I’ll talk about the party’s characters’ special abilities. Jeff can use the “Spy” command to analyze the enemy in search of weaknesses (and sometimes he steals something in the process), Paula can use the “Pray” skill to cause random things (such as healing the party or harming the enemy AND the party), and Codex got nothing because he sucks.
Later, after cutting through more insane animals, we find a small camp filled with many peasants using binoculars:

”We’re known as the ‘Tessie-Watching Club’.”

Well, I suppose it’s a way of wasting time. In any case, we visit the tent, finding the camp’s cook who offers us a free meal for no apparent reason, so we accept it as if it wasn’t suspicious (in fact, it works as if you were resting in a hotel). During the night:” Head south...I am Black Cat... If you hear this message, go to the south... ”

Oh yeah, I forgot our other heroes, I hope that they’re still alive and/or hunger and despair have not affected their minds. Hours later:

That’s what I wanted to say about Jeff: Unlike lesser men, Jeff suffers of constant insomnia without any serious side-effect to his mind-state or anything (surely related with a trauma he repressed one day that Tony was too “lovely” and did something that he pretends to believe it never happened), and while the rest of the party sleeps he’ll try to repair one of the “Broken items” you have; depending of Jeff’s IQ he’ll be able to repair the item or not, and some items cannot be obtained from anywhere except this way. Soon, in the morning, the wind blows:Time to meet a living legend!

Of course, it was supposed to be Nessie the monster’s name, but Japanese cannot romanize correctly, as you can watch here. After a short travel, we’re deployed in the other side.

Our path is blocked due the Mighty Pencil-Shaped Statue, so we enter the nearby cave.
Umm what?
I guess someone played too much DnD and Dungeon Keeper. Fortunately, it’s an easy dungeon with a non-very complex maze, has some treasures such as food and a better weapon for Jeff, the Stun Gun, but it has enemies like:The Mad Duck, that would be dangerous because it’s able to steal your PP and prevent you of using it, if it wasn’t for the reason Jeff isn’t a psyker, so he’s nothing more than a push-over. There are also fake gifts that attack you:

Moving on…
Eeer, okay. In this point, when we were to continue, the Stalking Photographer strikes again, apparently not caring that Codex isn’t here.

Hmm, no thanks, I’m not interested in any photo…”
S. Photoman: Come on, NO-ONE says “no” for a photo, unless you want something unpleasant to happen, and you wouldn’t like that, right?Okay, nevermind…Just be quick please…”
S. Photoman: See? Everyone gets what they want! I’ll watch you later! *disappears*

After the meeting, we’re finally at the dungeon’s end:

” My name's Brickroad, the dungeon developer. I've devoted my life to making dungeons. Well, by combining my skills and Dr. Andonuts intelligence, I can become "Dungeon Man," the first combination of human and dungeon in history. Let's meet again once I have become dungeon man. ...Would you like to get a good night's rest?”

Definitively, too much Dungeon Keeper. Now Jeff continues his travel entering the nearest mountain.
Nothing much to stand out,there are only some possessed mice as enemies, insects and other worthless scum (and gifts to loot, logically)…
Intelligence: That means we’ll come back here. And after the boring dungeon/cave/recycled map.

There goes a wasted dollar; it seems we’ll not get a monkey in our party anytime.
Also, according to Japan, in this bizarro-world cavemen ignored the pass of time and evolution's laws, and these brutes strike you with great strength, they’re too powerful for Jeff alone, but you can try to level up pretty quickly if you have the guts (and that’s what I did until I spent all of my healing items).”These stones are making a pattern. It’s called Stonehenge, UFO’s often visit here, you must have seen it on TV or read about it in the tabloids. Yes, THAT Stonehenge”.

And shortly after that the Stalking Photographer makes another appearance:
I still wonder where the hell he comes from, and why so many photos, an insane theory could be that he’s a Gygas’s agent monitoring the Chosen Ones’s progress, but that would make too much sense for this game… Or not?
Also, you can try to climb down the hole in the center, but your path is stopped by:
More wackiness (in the original version FYI, it was a limbless wooden doll). So only one place remains to be checked, and we proceed:

That machine is another insta-heal-everything medikit. But more importantly, we finally find the Professor:” And not only that... What? Who? My son? Oh... I... can't... I can't believe it... You're Jeff, my son. It's been maybe 10 years since I last saw you. I'm so glad you're such a healthy boy. Uh, those glasses look good on you. How about a donut? Well, I was only offering... I'd also like a donut right about now. Have you already checked out Stonehenge? Well, at least I asked... Mmmm... Mmhmm okay. By the way, why are you here? Oh, I see. That girl named Black Cat must have sensed I was here. Okay, I'll try to help you out. I'm trying to make a Phase Distorter that can connect two points in space and time. It's still incomplete. I'll let you use another invention I call the Sky Runner. It's a little bit old but it'll certainly help. When you board, always listen for the message that comes from your destination. You'll get there for sure if you listen to the message. The round machine over there is the Sky Runner. What do you think? Isn't it neat? Get in! Let's get together again in 10 years or so.””… Urge to kill, maim, burn rising…”

ROFL, as if Codex’s father wasn’t bad enough, this one lives just some meters away of his son’s school and never asked for him; I should mention too that instead of Sky Runner the original name was Sky Walker; guess why it was changed. Nevertheless, it’s flying time! http://rpgmusic.org/earthbound/the-sky-runner

[…] And that’s all.

Okay, I understand, I’m still unsure about the ritual sacr... Hey! Who are you?

”The Sky Runner... I guess it took a little damage while landing... Oh well...
You don't have to explain a thing... I'm Jeff. I came because you called me. I'm not really strong, really near-sighted, kind of shy, and I tend to be a little reckless. This is just the way I am... I hope you want me to be your friend... okay?

No.'...So why did you call me? Are you just making fun of me?

No, I mean that you’re much braver than you say, considering the hardships you suffered just to rescue two perfect strangers,not many people would had done what you did.Oh, thanks.

It’s ok, now you’ll say your last line and remain silent for the rest of the game.

All right! Let's get back to the journey, then!

And our party has another member! Time to rearrange the inventory and throw/sell the useless stuff. After this, we’re attacked by a phantom enemy that unfortunately curses Black Cat with the “possessed” effect I mentioned in the previous update, however because I’m greedy…I mean thrifty we’ll not return to the hospital to heal the “disease”. Checking around the town for something new, that it’s found:”but I would stress to you young kids, don’t play for more than 2 hours, anything excessive is no good. Parents Opposing Obsession Plan”.
Another 4th wall break, and more specifically, the shadowy guy of the right, he’s a merchant that sell stuff that only Jeff can use, more concretely explosives or Bottle Rocket , an uber-broken item with several degrees of cheesiness, so powerful it’s not recommended to use. The next stop is…

Odd, that tent wasn’t here before, right? Why is that?
OH FUCK!! IT’S A DAEMONICALLY POSSESED TENT!
And another mid-boss battle, despite the tent has somewhat powerful attacks (biting away like 35 hp for every of its attacks), it’s no rival to our party full arsenal, falling 4 turns after burning most of the PP in attacking. After defeating it:

Another plot device! Now if we had something to stop the zombies… And suddenly, after several steps to the north, someone calls Codex:”I just wanted to let you know that I finished a pretty unique invention. I'm not sure if it will help you or not... It's called "Zombie Paper," and it can be used to trap zombies. It works kind of like fly paper... All you need to do is place the paper on the floor of a tent or something... You've seen at least one tent around, right? And then the zombies get stuck to the paper when they move around inside the tent. You can catch a lot of zombies this way... In fact, I bet you could get rid of all the zombies that are terrorizing the area with this paper! Anyway, I just asked the Mach Pizza delivery man to deliver the Zombie Paper to you, Codex. You should get it pretty soon. I've never actually seen a zombie, but if there really are any, Zombie Paper would be very useful... I'll be calling you if I come up with anything else... *Click!* Beeeeep! ”

Speaking of convenient plot devices… At least the pizza guy shows up quickly:

He wanted me to deliver this to someone named Codex who is wandering around Threed. No one else knows about this, right? Let's just pretend that you're Codex, and I'll give this to you. But I AM Codex…Oh! Hello, Codex! Just go along with me on this one, okay. I made the decision that you're Codex, no matter what... That's right, Codex... *wink, wink* I've done my duty and given you Apple Kid's thingamajig... Well, goodbye! *double facepalms*

Let’s just use the macguffin in the resistance’s tent, before my head hurts too much. After this, the party goes to rest to the nearby hotel, waiting for the cutscene to happen.

The next day, we check the results:

Unfortunately retards are a real and much worse plague than zombies, but that’s life…

In any case, the ladder protected by the zombies is free, so we move on oncemore, looting everything in our path of righteousness…

But our party is interrupted by a weird monster:

But actually, you're just a commoner! I am the mortal enemy of your kind.”
And the gross thing attacks, again, nothing dangerous except a stinkful breath that causes all of the characters to cry due the odour. After exiting the maze, a man comments us about having seen a strange village, called Saturn Valley, where we go exterminating all the pests in our path (such as armored frogs, Farm zombies, red ants, and anything that looks ugly.

Great, now xenos, a strange and incomprehensible hivemind with either the Universe’s worst village’s layout or one our feeble minds cannot understand, because for some reason there are ladders that lead to nowhere, tunnels with no reason to be and more. Fortunately they heal us for free and sell weapons, so we rearm ourselves with Bionic Slingshots and other cooler stuff. Some of the “citizens”’s interesting comments are:”'BaSE BEHinD GRaPEfRUit fallS. PaSSwORD? i tEll.BElcH man say "Say PaSSwORD." tHEn StanD Still, wait fOR tHREE minUtES. ”

Okay, now we can continue and finally meet that Belch. On the way, the stalking photographer shows again:

The next thing to do is efectively wait for 3 minutes in real time until you can pass.http://rpgmusic.org/earthbound/belchs-factory
The factory is again another maze with good stuff and loaded with enemies. Some of the slimes’s inanities:

Some minutes later, our travel is once more interrupted by something:

”Uhh… Baseball?”42?

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn?
Slime: Stop babblering! Say the password! …Someone so quiet is either extremely shy or extremely dangerous… What a suspicious fellow!
And it charges, being killed a few moments later for his foolishness.
Aaaand, here it is, Belch:
NOTE: I’ll link a video with the dialogue and the following battle using Bottle rockets, just to show you how overkill these are; in a standard battle Belch survives 5 rounds without me using any of the powerful powers the party has. And despite is not mentioned anywhere, I believe that Belch and co are a cruel parody to the over-used slimes of jrpgs such as Dragon Quest and stuff. And the Mr. Saturn's odd font is based on Shigesato Itoi's daughter's writing.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWe_uGzdIF8

Unfortunately, broken attacks are a bane in most games, including rpgs (and specially jrpgs), Earthbound has some of these too as the Bottle Rockets, and that's nothing compared to the Multi-Bottle Rocket (a buyable item that deals like 800 points of damage at least, a FUCKING TON), and high-level powers will level entire armies. Surprisingly, the game is aware of this and you will be surprised and raped to death if you try to abuse these tricks to win the game effortlessly...

What would be a good recorder to use? I'd like to record some of the boss battles in FF6 as well but it seems that ZNes has no internal recorder like DosBox has. Is Fraps the be all, end all of recording?

I use the latest version of the snes9x (http://www.snes9x.com/) emulator, that includes the feature of recording videos and convert these to AVI, unfortunately I have not discovered yet how to enlarge the screenshots' size and/or which would be the way to make an avi recording with a decent quality and not occupying too much space at the same time, I'm experimenting with these.

@garfunkel:
You can use snes9x. It can record movies and frankly I consider it a better emulator than zsnes.

@lightbane:
Yeah early jrpgs tend to have some broken attacks. You can consider SMT to be one of the hardest games you've played until you realize that with lightning you can immobilize almost every enemy in the game (including 90% of the bosses) and kill them easily.

Tried Snes9x 1.41 - sound quality is worse than with Znes, I lost all my save states (ofc) and I can't find any way to take screenshots or record video.

I suck.

Click to expand...

The sound settings are a bit tricky. Go to there and try the "anti-resonance" option also go through the different sound drivers and see which one is better. Take a look at the readme for more sound tips. As for the screenshots, it's the F12 key. In the "hotkey configuration" menu you can change it to your liking. For save states , yeah, they probably can't be ported, but I'm sure the in-game saves work fine.

Well, let's start saying that Mother 1 was the series's origin, and the connections with Earthbound is that some characters (and settings) reappear, and that the main enemy is the same (althought Gygas had "different reasons" to invade Earth in each game). However the 1st Mother is set in the 80s, and Earthbound in the 90s, so the theory of Ness's father being Ninten the hero of the 1st game is unlikely unless he got lost in the Warp for several years. Ultimately, it's a loose sequel, as Mother's series timeline is chaotic and loony as the game themselves . As for trivia:
"
Nintendo of America had originally planned to translate and release Mother in the United States under the title Earth Bound. The localization was completed in 1990, but marketing pushed the release into fall of 1991, and it was eventually canceled. The Localization Producer and English Script Writer for Earth Bound, Phil Sandhop, explained, "Once the Super NES squatted in the pipeline and shoved the game aside from its appointed time, I believe that the marketing execs just decided that the game would be too expensive to produce and unsuccessful without marketing, and that's why it fell into oblivion."

In 1998, the fan translation group Demiforce found a beta cartridge of the game on eBay, and organized an effort to collect enough money to buy the game. The project was a success, and soon after, the game was dumped into a ROM and circulated around the internet. Demiforce appended "Zero" onto the title to retroactively discern it from its sequel, EarthBound. Since Demiforce had built its reputation on releasing their English translations out of the blue, some fans debated whether the cartridge had been translated by Nintendo or by Demiforce themselves. However, today it is generally agreed that the cartridge is legitimate, as Mother 1 + 2 contains all of the changes found in the beta cartridge.

Though the port was only released in Japan, the versions of Mother and Mother 2 included in Mother 1 + 2 are actually re-translations of the English versions of the games even though somewhat ironically, Mother never had a proper English release. The name of the company that directed the port and re-translation has never been announced by Nintendo."